Why Do Christians Disagree So Much?

The short answer: Because the Bible is clear on the central things and less clear on some others, because Christians come from different histories and cultures, and sometimes simply because of pride. Faithful Christians agree on the essentials of the faith and differ on secondary questions. Learning to tell the two apart, and to love each other across the difference, is part of following Jesus.

Your friend goes to a Pentecostal church with loud music and hands in the air. Your cousin is Anglican, with robes and written prayers. Your neighbours are Baptist, or Presbyterian, or Catholic, or Orthodox. Online, Christians seem to spend half their time arguing with each other. It’s fair to ask: if they all follow the same Jesus and read the same Bible, why can’t they agree?

Why it happens

We see dimly. “Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12). The Bible is clear about the gospel, but it doesn’t settle every question we’d like it to. Where it says less, sincere people read it differently.

History and culture. Many church traditions grew up in particular places and times, and some divisions began over real arguments centuries ago. People usually belong to the church their family belonged to.

Pride. Some division is plain sin. The church in Corinth split into fan clubs: “‘I follow Paul,’ ‘I follow Apollos,’ ‘I follow Cephas,’ or ‘I follow Christ.’” Paul’s reply was sharp: “Is Christ divided?” (1 Corinthians 1:12–13). Being right can matter more to us than being loving.

Essentials and secondary matters

Not every disagreement is the same size. Paul speaks of what is “of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3), was buried and rose again. An old saying, repeated by Christians since the 1600s, puts the principle well: in essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, love.

The essentials are the things the gospel itself depends on. There is one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus is fully God and fully man. He died for our sins and rose bodily from the dead. He will come again. The Bible is God’s Word. These are confessed by churches all over the world, and they are worth standing firm on.

Some differences sit close to the centre. The Reformation, for instance, was a serious argument about how a person is made right with God, and evangelical churches hold firmly that it is by grace, through faith in Christ alone. Not every difference is small.

But many disagreements are secondary. Faithful, Bible-loving Christians differ on them:

• whether to baptise babies or only believers
• styles of worship and music
• how churches should be led and organised
• some questions about spiritual gifts
• the order of events when Jesus returns

These questions are worth thinking about, and every church has to decide how to practise them. But they are not reasons to doubt that someone is a fellow Christian.

How to disagree like a Christian

Jesus prayed for His followers “that all of them may be one,” and He gave the reason: “so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:21). Our unity is part of our witness. Paul says to work “with diligence to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3), because there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5).

In practice:

• Before you criticise another church, understand it. Describe what they believe the way they would describe it.
• Hold your opinions humbly. You’re probably wrong about something; you just don’t know what.
• Don’t fight online for sport. “Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on his opinions” (Romans 14:1).
• Love first. “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35).

The fact that Christians disagree doesn’t mean Christianity is false. It means its followers are human. What’s remarkable is how much Christians across every century and continent hold in common.

Think about it: Is there a Christian from a different church whose faith you could learn from, rather than argue with?

Go deeper: The Key Teachings of John Wesley — on Wesley’s sermon “Catholic Spirit,” in which a man with strong convictions asks Christians who cannot all think alike, “may we not love alike?” and sets out what really matters: a heart right with God. Start with chapter 19, “The Catholic Spirit”.